


A Dinner Party With Harper Dailey

by Jessica_Pond



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Detective, Dinner Party, Harper Dailey, Murder, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-27 01:02:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5027674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jessica_Pond/pseuds/Jessica_Pond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What will happen when Detective Harper Dailey shows up for a dinner party hosted by Lady Erland only for it to be interrupted by a horrible murder. Will Detective Dailey be able to find the murder in time?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Dinner Party With Harper Dailey

"Thank you all for coming here today. I am honored to be your hostess tonight.¨ The widowed Lady Alannah Erland said as she stood at the head of the table. She was wearing a brilliant royal blue evening gown. The chandelier gleamed above us as we sat around the table in the dining room.

The rain pounded on the roof as the room seemed to be getting darker. The hard wood table shone from the light of the brilliant chandelier. The colorful centerpiece was made of autumn leaves. The plates where pearl white with a gold trim matched with golden flatware.

Sitting on my left was the famous explorer Charlie Griffins, who had discovered the Trunkike. He was wearing pristine tuxedo with a black bowtie. Across the table from me were the Manzini twins, Julia and Alonzo, the owners of the Manzini Traveling Circus. Julia was wearing a knee length ruby red dress and Alonzo was wearing a tuxedo with a bright red bowtie. Next to them was Lady Erland's younger brother, Simon Norwood. He was a acquitted of murder a few months ago. He was wearing a tuxedo with a navy blue bowtie. Then there was the serving staff; Charles Carnes the butler and Rana Hollenbeck the maid.

And of course then there was me, Harper Dailey. I've been a detective with Scotland Yard for about 6 years since I moved to London from Chicago. I was wearing a simple black knee length skirt with a blue top and a black blazer and a simple pearl necklace.

A few weeks ago, Lady Erland announced that she would be hosting a dinner party for some of the respected people in London. Although, Mr. Norwood was only there because he was staying with Lady Erland.

"I'm so glad that you all could make it here on this Halloween night. And now, without further ado, dinner is served." Lady Erland clapped her hands and Mr. Carnes and Mrs. Hollenbeck each came out with food trolleys.

They served each of us or first course; a salad with oil and vinegar. While we were eating, Mr. Griffins turned to me. The first thing I noticed was that he had a very bushy mustache.

"So, Detective Dailey, it's so nice to see you again. Have you had any interesting cases lately?"

"Actually, yes I have."

"So tell me about it."

"On Monday there was a robbery at the museum of London. The Harrington Diamond was stolen and we didn't have any leads until we found a shoe print.

From that shoe print, we found out that our suspect was a man that was about 1.7 meters tall and weighed about 81 kilograms. So we took that information and ran it against our criminal database. We found two men that fit that description who weren't in prison already.

After doing some more digging I found out that Mr. Conner Miller hadn't checked on with his probation officer since Sunday. We sent some officers around and we found him at King's Cross Station trying to leave the country with the diamond." I explained.

"That is truly amazing."

"Yeah, it is. So have you gone anywhere exciting lately?"

"Unfortunately, no. My wife became very sick about a month ago and I haven't left her side since, well that was until tonight. She insisted on me being here, she said that I needed to get out of the house." He lightly smiled at me.

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about your wife. She was very nice the last time I met her. Please tell her that I wish her the best and that she gets better soon."

"Off course." He smiled at me before going back to eating his salad. I looked around the room at the other guests.

Lady Erland was talking to her younger brother, the Manzini twins were taking with each other, and Mr. Carnes and Mrs. Hollenbeck were talking quietly. I noticed that everyone seemed relaxed except for Mr. Norwood. He seemed very nervous and kept looking the butler.

There was a clap of thunder and the lights flickered. Lady Erland spoke up, "Mr. Carnes, will you please go check the fuse box?"

"Of course, ma'am." He replied and started walking out of the room.

"Wait, I'll come with you." Mr. Norwood stood up and walked out of the room with the butler.

The room fell into silence as the rain pounded harder on the roof. The twins started up their conversation again, Mr. Griffins started talking to Lady Erland, and Mrs. Hollenbeck wasn't in the room, so I decided to talk to the Manzinis.

"So how is your circus doing, are you planning to go anywhere fun?" I looked across to them.

"It's doing well, we were actually thinking about doing a tour in America during the next few months." Julia answered me in her Italian accent.

"Oh that sounds-" I was cut off by a scream that came from the hall that only moments ago the two men had walked into. We all jumped up out of our seats and stood there in silence for a moment.

"What was that?" Mrs. Hollenbeck screamed as she suddenly appeared behind me. Everyone seemed to break out of a trance as Lady Erland talked.

"That sounded like Simon. Come on we must go see." She took off running down the hall followed by me and the rest of the dinner party. We had only just turned the second corner when we saw a dark figure on the floor. As we got closer it was easier to tell that it was Mr. Norwood laying on his stomach.

"Oh Simon." Lady Erland burst into sobs as she clinged onto Mr. Griffins. I bent down and placed my fingers on his neck to check for a pulse. I stood up and looked at everyone only to find someone to be missing.

"Has anyone seen Mr. Carnes?" I questioned as I looked around at everybody's faces. They looked shocked, Mrs. Hollenbeck even looked like she might've cried. They looked at me and most of them shook their heads. "Ok, Mr. Griffins, make sure nobody touches the body, I am going to go call Scotland Yard. Mrs. Hollenbeck, while I do that, will you go and find a sheet or something to cover the body?" I said, taking charge of the situation. She nodded her head and started walking down the hallway in the opposite direction. I pulled out my cell phone only to find out that I had no service.

"Lady Erland, do you have a landline?"

"Yes, of course, I'll show you where it is. Why don't the rest of you go to the parlor. I'll have Mrs. Hollenbeck put some tea on when she gets back. The parlor is down this hallway and take a left about 5 doors down. Come, detective, the phone's this way." She walked with me in the opposite direction.

"Thank you for doing this for me, I'm very sorry about your brother. I swear I'll find out who did it."

"Of course, thank you for helping to solve his murder. If anyone can do it, you can. Here's the phone," we had walked into a very nicely kept guest room, "if you need anything else, I'll be in the parlor with the other guests." I nodded my head in thanks as she walked out of the room.

I picked up the phone and dialed the number of Detective Inspector Eisenhower. I explained the situation to him and he asked if I would be on the case since I was already there. Of course, I said yes because I was already planning on it. I ended my call and walked to the parlor where everyone was drinking tea. I noticed on my way back that Mr. Norwood's body had been covered with a white bed sheet.

The parlor was quite a big room. It had 3 sofas and 2 chairs. There was a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The room was decorated in the color gold.

"Because of the storm, the police won't be here for at least an hour. I'm going to go examine the body. Does anyone volunteer to go find Mr. Carnes, because at the moment he is our main suspect?" Everyone looked around until all Alonzo stepped up.

"I'll do it." He said.

"Ok, the rest of you should stay here until I get back." They all murmured in agreement. I turned and walked out of the room down the hallway where the body was.

I crouched down next to the body and carefully removed the sheet. There was a mass of blood that was on the back of his head. I took a pen from the pocket of my skirt and lifted up some of the hair surrounding the blood. There was a deep cut on the back of his head along with a bruise.

I looked around the body to see if there was anything near him that could have made that wound. About a meter away, next to a door, I found a shard of a broken vase. I opened the door to find the rest of the vase. I looked on the shelf that was on the wall near the door. There was a place in the dust were a vase should have been. I took out one of my gloves and wrapped the first piece of the vase I found before putting it in my pocket.

I moved back to the body and turned it over. There was blood on the hardwood floor from where he had been laying. There was no other signs of trauma. There also weren't any signs of a struggle, so what probably happened was the murderer came up behind him and smashed the vase over his head. He probably died of a brain hemorrhage.

I walked back to the parlor after I put the sheet over the body. Everyone was sitting and talking quietly. Alonzo still wasn't back yet with Mr. Carnes. Mr. Griffins looked up at me when I walked in.

"Do you know how he died yet, if you don't mind me asking?" Everybody looked up and waited for me to speak.

"He was hit in the back if the head with a vase that was on a shelf near by. He mostly likely died of a brain hemorrhage, but there's no way to be sure without an autopsy."

Silence fell just before Alonzo burst into the room.

"I found Mr. Carnes." He ran out if the room and we followed him. We went by Mr. Norwood and kept going. We had passed the room the Lady Erland had taken me to to use the phone. We went around the corner and stopped as we saw a closet opened and an unmoving Mr. Carnes hanging halfway out.

"He's just unconscious, I checked."

"So that rules him out as our lead suspect. Mr. Griffins why don't you help Mr. Manzini carry Mr. Carnes to a bedroom."

"Yes, there's one right around the corner." They picked him up by the shoulders and feet and carried him to the bed.

"But wait, if everybody was in the room except Mr. Carnes and Simon, who could the murderer be?" Lady Erland said once we were all in the room.

"Ah, but that's where you are wrong, Lady Erland. Not everyone was in the room. Mrs. Hollenbeck, where were you when all of this happened?" I said turning to the maid. The rest of the dinner party was looking at her expectantly.

"Why, I-I was in the k-kitchen about to start the next course." She replied quickly and a tad bit nervously.

"I highly doubt that, I bet you were waiting to kill him all night. He wasn't nervously looking at the butler he was looking at you. Then when you saw that you had the chance you went into the hallway while everyone was distracted. You knocked out Mr. Carnes and put him in the closet while Mr. Norwood tried to run for help. But you got to him first. He screamed as you crushed the vase over his head. And you pushed the broken vase into an empty room before you ran back to the dining room through a different hall. But the question is why did you do it?" I walked closer to her and she grew more nervous with every word I spoke.

The air felt thick as she looked around nervously before finally talking. "Alright fine, you're right, I did it! But he killed my son, my baby, and he got away with it. It wasn't fair!" She started sobbing just before the doorbell rang. Julia ran to go get the door.

"That would be the police, Rana Hollenbeck you are under arrest for the murder of Simon Norwood. You do not have to say anything. However, it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence." As I was saying this, Eisenhower came in and heard me telling her that she was being arrested. He put handcuffs on her.

I walked out of the room to see that the coroner had already taken the body away and that Julia had shown the paramedics where Mr. Carnes was. I walked back into the room to say goodnight to everyone and to apologize to Lady Erland about the her brother before I left the dinner party.

**_The_ ** **** **_End_ **


End file.
